VSHN Canada Hackday: A Tale of Tech Triumphs and Tasty Treats

The VSHN Canada Hackday turned into an epic two-day adventure, where excitement and productivity went hand in hand. Mätthu, Bigli, and Jay, our stellar team members, joined forces to level up VSHN as a company and expand their skill sets. In this blog post, we’re ecstatic to share the highlights and unforgettable moments from our very own Hackday event.

🏆 Notable Achievements

1️⃣ Revamping Backoffice Tools for VSHN Canada

Mätthu dove deep into several pressing matters, including:

• Time tracking software that feels like a relic from the 2000s. With the Odoo 16 Project underway, we explored its impressive features and found a sleek solution for HR tasks like time and holiday tracking and expenses management. Now we just need to integrate it as a service for VSHN Canada.
• Aligning the working environments of VSHN Switzerland and Canada. Although not identical, we documented the similarities and differences in our handbook to provide a seamless experience.
• Tidying up our document storage in Vancouver. Previously scattered across Google Cloud and Nextcloud, a cleanup session finally brought order to the chaos.

📖 Documentation available in the Handbook.

2️⃣ Mastering SKS GitLab Runners

Bigli and Jay teamed up to craft fully managed SKS GitLab runners using Project Syn, aiming to automate GitLab CI processes and eliminate manual installation and updates. This collaboration also served as an invaluable learning experience for Jay, who delved into Project Syn’s architecture and VSHN’s inner workings. Hackday milestones included:

• Synthesizing the GitLab-runner cluster
• Updating the cluster to the latest supported version
• Scheduling cluster maintenance during maintenance windows
• Developing a component for the GitLab-runner
• Implementing proper monitoring, time permitting

📖 Documentation available on our wiki.

🍻 Festive Fun

On Hackday’s opening day, we treated ourselves to a team outing at “Batch,” our go-to local haunt nestled in Vancouver’s scenic harbor. Over unique beers and animated chatter, we toasted to our first-ever Canadian Hackday.

🎉 Wrapping Up

VSHN Canada’s Hackday was an exhilarating mix of productivity, learning, and amusement. Our team banded together to confront challenges, develop professionally, and forge lasting memories. We can hardly wait for future Hackday events and the continued growth of VSHN Canada and VSHN.